Farragut Career Academy | |
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Address | |
2345 S. Christiana Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60615 United States |
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Coordinates | 41°50′58″N 87°42′30″W / 41.8495°N 87.7084°WCoordinates: 41°50′58″N 87°42′30″W / 41.8495°N 87.7084°W |
Information | |
School type | Public Secondary |
Opened | 1894 |
School district | Chicago Public Schools |
Principal | Tonya Hammaker |
Grades | 9–12 |
Gender | Coed |
Enrollment | 904 (2015–16) |
Campus type | Urban |
Color(s) |
Blue Gold |
Athletics conference | Chicago Public League |
Mascot | Admirals |
Accreditation | North Central Association of Colleges and Schools |
Website | farragutcareeracademy |
Farragut Career Academy High School is a public 4–year high school located in the Little Village neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. As a career academy, Farragut emphasizes a curriculum that combines academic instruction with work-study experiences and vocational training. In addition to Education-To-Careers clusters, Farragut is also home to the General Patton JROTC program which functions as a school-within-a-school. The school is named for David Farragut, a naval hero of the American Civil War who later was named the first admiral in the United States Navy.
The school's service area includes North Lawndale and South Lawndale.
The original Farragut School opened its doors on September 4, 1894, as a new primary school. It was located on Spaulding Ave near 23rd Street in the South Lawndale neighborhood. Its 16 rooms were designed to accommodate up to 900 students. The Chicago Board of Education named the school after Civil War naval hero Admiral David Glasgow Farragut and appointed George R. Plumb to be Principal. On the first day of school, Farragut enrolled about 500 students in grades 1–4. Those 500 students were among 175,000 students enrolled in Chicago's 200 schools in a year that saw a 15% increase in enrollment.
In its early years, Farragut served as a primary school for thousands of neighborhood students. Two years after opening Farragut, Principal Plumb officiated at a ceremony to dedicate an oil portrait of Admiral Farragut. This portrait was presented to the school by the Farragut Post 602 of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) on June 26, 1896. The dedication ceremony included speeches by representatives of the Chicago Board of Education and the Grand Army of the Republic and the singing of “patriotic songs” by Farragut students. The portrait of Admiral Farragut still hangs in Farragut's south building. Principal Plumb was dismissed from Farragut in 1901 and was replaced by Mary E. Baker.